Kingston, 5 May 2023 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has said that the late former Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer, will be celebrated during Workers’ Week.

Workers’ Week begins on Sunday, May 14 and culminates on Labour Day, May 23.

Minister Grange said: “The period of Workers’ Week coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jamaica’s third Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Hugh Shearer. In marking the Shearer Centenary, we will host a special floral tribute on Thursday, May 18 — the anniversary of Mr Shearer’s birth — at the National Heroes Park beginning at 9 in the morning.”

In addition, the Hugh Lawson Shearer Lecture will take place at the Labour Studies Institute, named for the former Prime Minister and union boss, at the University of the West Indies, Mona on the 18th.

Minister Grange said the Jamaica Labour Party and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union — organisations which Mr Shearer led — will organise other activities throughout the year to commemorate Mr Shearer’s Centenary.

Other activities to commemorate Workers’ Week include a Floral Tribute to labour movement stalwart, Aggie Bernard, at the Workers' Monument at Kingston Craft Market on Tuesday, May 16; a Cultural Day at Workers’ Park at Frome, Westmoreland on May 18; the Labour Relations Awards Banquet at Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on May 19; and the Workers’ Week Church Service at the Church of the Open Bible at Washington Boulevard on May 21.

The planting of ten thousand trees along Highway 2000 will be this year’s National Labour Day project. The theme for Labour Day is ‘Plant a Tree for Life: Promoting Climate Change Mitigation, Food Security and Road Safety’.

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